Olaf's Marketplace Adventure
by Lindstrom
Summary: In the tumultuous weeks since Elsa's coronation, Olaf has noticed that no one has time for a happy snowman. He heads off to explore the marketplace, but neither Olaf nor Arendelle are ready for each other yet.
1. Chapter 1

Councilor Marda was Queen Elsa's advisor on farming and livestock. She was very thorough. Elsa was rubbing her temples with her gloved fingers while Marda described the effects of the queen's snowstorm on Arendelle's farmers and ranchers.

"The snowline stopped at Piney Ridge, your Majesty. The orchards and farms in Unnam Valley survived the freeze unharmed. But everything on the exposed side of the mountain died. We lost most of our wheat and corn crops. Every kitchen garden from the waterline upward froze. Reports are still coming in on how much of the livestock died, and that will be mostly the ones born this spring. Adult animals mostly weathered the storm," Marda summarized.

"Can we eat this winter?" Elsa asked.

The door flew open and Olaf scurried in. "Elsa! Can I go to the marketplace?"

Marda shot an uncertain look at the little snowman. As councilor, she'd known Elsa for years. The explosion of Elsa's secret a few weeks ago had rocked through the Council, who had assumed that they had a withdrawn, invalid Queen, not a magical, healthy one. Intelligent, competent, and hardworking, not one of them knew how to deal with Elsa's strange powers. As a body, they were trying to ignore them. Marda was no exception. Even as they worked to categorize and contain the damage from the unseasonal freeze, they assiduously ignored its cause.

"Yes, go. Find Kristoff and stay with him," Elsa said. Olaf had been interrupting meetings, offering warm hugs, and generally making a nuisance of himself for two weeks. No one had enough time or energy to cope with him right now, and he made her councilors nervous.

"Thanks! Bye!" Olaf called as he left.

Marda waited a few seconds, stammered, then picked up where she left off. "The root crops were unaffected. The freeze didn't last long enough to penetrate the ground. We'll have to tighten our belts, but no one should starve this winter, your Majesty."


	2. Chapter 2

Olaf waddled across the causeway, stopping to watch birds fly, look at pretty rocks, and lean over the guardrail to see how far away the water was. When he noticed people staring at him, he waved back and introduced himself. The adults hurried away, pulling their children with them.

The marketplace, in Olaf's eyes, was huge. He stopped to gasp "wow" before he scurried in and started looking around. He stopped in front of wooden boxes filled with small red and yellow fruit. He put out his carrot nose and sniffed hard. They smelled sharp and sweetly sour. He exhaled in delight. "Smells like summer!"

"You're the queen's snowman, aren't you? I saw you at the ice skating party," said the woman standing by the fruit boxes. "I'm Flora."

"Hi! I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs!" Olaf hugged Flora's leg. "Do you like ice skating? That was the best day of my life! What are those?"

Flora chuckled at him. "Raspberries, red and golden. They might be the only raspberries left in Arendelle. Want to try them?"

"Oh! Can I? Can I have yellow? That's my favorite color."

Flora held out a handful of golden raspberries. Olaf took a couple tries with his twig fingers to pick up something that small, but he got it into his mouth.

"They taste like summer! I love summer!" Olaf ate another one.

"Are you here alone?" Flora asked him.

"No, I'm finding Kristoff. Kristoff!" Olaf toddled off to look for him.

Flora tugged him back. "He's gone with the rest of the ice harvesters. See that shed? That's where the ice men sell blocks, next to the fish. But no one's there."

"Oh."

"You shouldn't be here alone," Flora warned him.

"I'll go home as soon as I see everything," Olaf promised.

Flora was distracted by customers, or she might have insisted Olaf go home.

Olaf wandered over to the ice shed first, which was empty. He made his way slowly past the fish. The man sitting there glared at him, so Olaf did not offer him a warm hug. Then there was an empty corral that smelled like animals, displays of scarves and belts, and then more people selling food. He recognized most of it, but was puzzled by a man selling dirt clods. Olaf toddled up to see if they were special dirt clods.

"Get away!"

"Can I look at the dirt?" Olaf asked.

The big man picked up a dirt clod and threw it at Olaf. It hit him, knocking off his foot snowball. Olaf reattached it and scurried off. The man threw another dirt clod at him, yelling that they didn't need unnatural freaks around and if he knew what was good for him he'd go back to the mountains and take the queen with him.

Olaf didn't understand all the words, but the tone was enough to set him running for his life, his face a mask of terror. He ended up in a cobblestone street, with buildings so close-packed he couldn't see mountains or harbor to get his bearings.

The next instant a hoop rolled by. Olaf forgot about being lost and chased it.

"That's mine! Leave it alone!" a child's voice called. The girl ran past, hitting the hoop with a stick.

Olaf followed her. "Can I play too? How do you play?"

"Get your own hoop!"

Olaf stopped running when the row of buildings ended. Barefoot children played ball in the empty corner.

"Can I play too? How do you play?" Olaf called to them.

"Catch!" one of the children answered.

Olaf caught the ball, but it knocked out his middle snowball. The children gathered around as Olaf reassembled himself.

"You come apart?"

"I'm a snowman. That's how we're made."

Mischievous grins went around the group. "Let's have a snowball fight!"

"Uh," Olaf stammered. If his snowballs got too far apart, he would need help to get back together.

The children converged on Olaf. For the second time that day, he was running for his life. The iron rail fence saved him. His snowballs popped through and fell back together on the other side. Olaf sighed in relief as the children stopped on the other side.

"Come on! There's an alley behind the butcher shop!" one shouted.

They scattered one direction while Olaf went another. He found an old shed, the door hanging crazily askew. He ducked in, looking for a place to hide. Some old boxes and a dusty piece of canvas worked out just fine. Olaf held still as he heard the crowd of children run past. They didn't even pause.

He sighed in relief again, then his snow got goosebumps. From the other side of the canvas, he'd heard someone sniff.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hello? Are you nice or mean?" Olaf ventured to say.

The only reply was another sniff.

Olaf peeked out from behind the canvas. In the light filtering through the cracks, he could see the back of a boy with shaggy black hair. His thin shoulders were hunched, head bowed over his knees.

"Are you hiding too?" Olaf asked.

The head nodded.

Olaf considered. He was hiding because people weren't nice to snowmen. He wondered why a person would hide from other people.

"Why?" Olaf asked.

"They threw a rock at me."

"Someone threw a dirt clod at me," Olaf said, pushing things out of the way. Bonded by their common experience, Olaf considered the boy his new best friend. "Hi, I'm Olaf and I like warm hugs." He put a twig arm around the boy's shoulders.

"What's your name?" Olaf prodded.

"Tomov."

"How come they threw a rock at you?"

"I can't look right," Tomov said, at last lifting his head from his knees.

"Why?" asked Olaf.

"I don't know. I just can't. See?"

Olaf looked as Tomov stared at him. Sure enough, one eye looked straight ahead and the other eye looked only to the left. The boy demonstrated that his left eye could only look left no matter what his right eye did.

His curiosity satisfied, Olaf settled back. "I can push my nose out the back of my head."

"No, you can't. No one can do that," said Tomov.

"Watch." Olaf pushed his nose through the back of his head, leaving just a tiny nose in front. "See?"

Tomov laughed.

"Can you push it back through? I can't reach that far," Olaf said.

Tomov pushed Olaf's nose back out the front of his face.

"Do you want to play with me?" Olaf asked him, wide smile once again spreading across his face.

"What do you want to play?" Tomov countered.

"We probably need a game that involves lots of hiding, so no one else throws a rock at us," Olaf suggested.

"Fox and rabbits?" Tomov offered.

"I love that game! That's my favorite game! How do you play?"

The two of them crawled out of the shed. Olaf picked up the rules as they went. It was delightfully simple. Olaf and Tomov were the rabbits. Every other person in Arendelle was a fox. They had to hide from everyone, but they couldn't use the same hiding place twice. As the hours passed, Olaf and Tomov found every doorway, overhang, ditch, shed, and hollow tree in the village. They won the round every time someone passed without throwing a rock at them. They didn't lose, not even once, although several people paused to stare at a small snow cloud hovering a few feet off the ground.

"I need to get back to the marketplace and find Papa," Tomov said at last, as the sun sank in the sky.

"I love the marketplace! I'll come with you. Will your papa like me?" Olaf asked.

"No," Tomov answered. "Papa doesn't like anyone, not even me."

Olaf didn't know what to say to that, so he just nodded. They played six more rounds of fox and rabbits on the way back to the marketplace.

"That's the man that threw the dirt clod at me," Olaf whispered loudly out of the corner of his mouth as they approached the marketplace.

"That's my papa," Tomov answered. "And those aren't dirt clods; it's a potato."

"Oh. What's a potato?"

"You need one last hiding place, Olaf. I'll bring you a potato. You eat it. Cook it and then put salt on it. They're really good," Tomov said.

"You're going to give me a potato? All my own? I love potatoes!" said Olaf.

"Find a hiding place, Olaf," Tomov insisted. "You're still the rabbit and now Papa is the fox."

"I'll hide in Flora's empty raspberry boxes. Is Flora your friend too? Do you like raspberries?"

Tomov didn't answer, but pushed Olaf along, shooting worried glances at his papa. He hadn't seen them yet.

"Hi Flora!" Olaf called as they approached the raspberry stand. "This is my new friend Tomov and I have to hide from his papa! Can I use your empty boxes?"

"Ach, you'd better hide from a man like him. Get in there, quick. He's packing up to leave. Go, Tomov, he's looking for you." Flora shooed Olaf one direction and sent Tomov the other way.

Olaf climbed in the wooden crates, which still smelled delightfully of raspberries and summer. Flora set a handful of raspberries down next to him, a mixture of red and golden this time. Olaf picked out the golden ones and ate them.

Within a few minutes, Tomov's head ducked down between the boxes. "Here," he said, shoving a potato towards Olaf.

Olaf inhaled deeply. "It smells just like dirt!"

"They grow in the dirt. Wash it first," Tomov said. "I have to go."

"Wait! I have a gift for you too!" Olaf picked up the red raspberries and put them in Tomov's grubby hand. "They taste like summer!"

"Thanks, Olaf," said Tomov. "Maybe I'll see you again sometime." He shoved the handful of berries in his mouth and scampered off.

"Flora, look! I have a potato!" Olaf said. "And a friend!"

Flora pushed him back down. "You stay there until he's gone." She set another box over the top to encase Olaf's snow cloud.

Olaf spent several minutes sniffing his potato and turning it this way and that. At last Flora pulled the box off his snow cloud and beckoned him out.

"You head straight back to the castle, understand?" she said.

"I have a potato!"

"I'm sure Queen Elsa wants to see the potato, Olaf. Can you take it to her and show it to her right now?" Flora said.

"I can share it with her! Do you think Elsa likes to eat potatoes?" Olaf asked.

"I'm sure she loves them. But you need to go fast. Don't stop and talk to anyone, all right? I'd walk you home if I could," Flora said.

"Anna too?"

"Of course, the princess loves potatoes too. Go on, Olaf. If they aren't worried about you already, they should be," Flora walked him out of the marketplace and pointed him in the direction of the causeway.

Olaf set down his potato to give Flora a warm hug. Then he picked up his potato and scooted off.

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**Author note: Thanks for reading! The last chapter will be posted tomorrow. Reviews and comments are appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

Elsa tapped at the door to the sitting room where Anna was meeting with people who were too nervous to meet with Elsa. Her job was to find out what they needed and reassure them that the queen was sorry and she wouldn't freeze Arendelle again.

"Tired?" Elsa asked as she pushed open the door.

Anna nodded.

"Shall we get some supper?"

Anna nodded again, getting to her feet. "Have you seen Olaf? He interrupted me about fifty times yesterday, but not once today."

"He wanted to go to the marketplace. I said yes," Elsa said.

"Olaf? You let him go over the causeway by himself?" Anna said in a tone that questioned Elsa's judgment.

"I told him to stay with Kristoff. I just needed him out of the way."

"Elsa, Kristoff isn't there. Every ice harvester in Arendelle is gone. Olaf is at the marketplace by himself," Anna said, her voice rising.

The royal sisters set out for the causeway at a fast walk.

"Why are all the ice harvesters gone?" Elsa asked.

"When you thawed everything, you thawed _everything,_" Anna said. "All their ice blocks went up in blue sparkles. Kristoff said they're headed for the high mountain lakes. Sometimes those stay frozen all summer."

"Oh," said Elsa, dismayed to find out about yet another small disaster she'd set off.

"It's fine, Elsa," Anna said, giving her a sideways hug. "If they come back empty-handed, you can just," Anna waved her hand in a gesture intended to look magical.

Elsa didn't answer. She was not confident that she could make an ice block without burying Arendelle in ice blocks. And she didn't think Kristoff liked her very much. Anna still had much more confidence in her than she had in herself.

"Look! That's him!" Anna said, breaking into a run.

Olaf was already at the far end of the causeway. He was clutching something in both arms, his huge grin splitting his face.

Elsa followed Anna quickly, realizing just how much she loved that funny little snowman. She could use a warm hug right now.

"Look! Look what I got! I made a new friend and he gave me a potato! A potato!" Olaf exulted. "He said we can cook it and eat it! I'm going to share it with you! It's a potato!"

Anna knelt next to Olaf, admiring his potato.

"I would love to have potato at supper tonight," Elsa said, running her finger over it.

"Me too!" said Olaf. "And I got to eat some raspberries too! Yellow ones! Red ones too, but yellow is my favorite color. I gave the rest of them to my friend because he gave me a potato. Raspberries taste just like summer looks, Elsa. Do you love raspberries? I love raspberries!"

"I'm glad one of us had a happy, carefree day," said Elsa.

"It's good to be home," Olaf said cheerfully.

"We're not quite there yet," said Anna.

"If you're with people you love, anywhere can be home," said Olaf. "I know these things because I'm a love expert." He curled his twig fingers around Elsa's hand and smiled up at them both.

THE END

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Author Note: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review. This is my first story here, and I'm interested in what you think. Thanks for the nice review, Cassie.


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